Judge Rules Noriega Is A Pow Ex-dictator May Escape Being Put In Maximum-security Prison

December 9, 1992|The New York Times

A federal judge in Miami ruled on Tuesday that Manuel Antonio Noriega was a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions and that it was questionable whether he could receive the rights guaranteed by the treaty if sent to a maximum-security federal prison.

Acknowledging that he was venturing into uncharted legal waters, Judge William Hoeveler said the treaty`s definition of prisoner of war was broad enough to encompass Noriega.

He also said that because the former Panamanian dictator was a convicted felon under U.S. law, Noriega need not be sent to a military prison as Noriega`s attorneys had claimed.

But Hoeveler said that as a POW, Noriega should have rights and protections that might be denied to others in the same prison.

Prosecutors said the judge`s decision should have little practical effect on the case.

From the beginning of the case, Noriega`s attorneys have argued that as a prisoner of war he was outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.

Hoeveler did not address the question of jurisdiction but ruled that Noriega was plainly a prisoner of war, satisfying the treaty`s requirement that he belonged to an armed force in conflict and had ``fallen into the power of the enemy.``

The third Geneva Convention, which governs the rights of prisoners of war, requires specific humanitarian guarantees that it extends to all prisoners, including those convicted of crimes. It mandates, for instance, that prison conditions ``conform in all cases to the requirements of health and humanity.``

He said that standard could exceed those contained in the proscription against cruel and unusual punishment contained in the Eighth Amendment.

More specifically, Article 108 of the third Geneva Convention dictates that prisoners be able to receive and send mail, receive one relief parcel monthly, take regular exercise in the open air and have whatever spiritual assistance they desire. Article 78 prohibits corporal punishment and the deprivation of daylight.

But Hoeveler suggested that at least some of those were not the norm in the most severe federal prisons, to which, Noriega`s attorneys contend, the government hopes to send the former Panamanian leader.